Redskins LB Ryan Kerrigan Hosts Celebrity Waiter Night

ARLINGTON, VA — Washington Redskins LB Ryan Kerrigan traded his jersey for an apron Monday night to serve a full course dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse for his second annual Celebrity Waiter Night. Joining Kerrigan as celebrity waiters for the night were Redskins teammates : Niles Paul, Shawn Lauvao, Alfred Morris, Ryan Clark, Gabe Miller, Adam Hayward, Jackson Jeffcoat and Braxton Cave.

“We’re here to support the Blitz For The Better Foundation,” said Kerrigan. “We started this foundation close to two years ago looking to help special needs children and challenged children in the greater Washington, D.C. area. This event — Celebrity Waiters Night, is when my teammates and I serve food here at Ruth Chris in Arlington to the customers. So it’s a real fun night and a great way to raise money.”

Kerrigan and his teammates had a lot of fun serving food, signing Redskins gear and mingling with fans. As expected, one of the more customer-friendly celebrity waiters was safety Ryan Clark who served food and graciously picked up trash. Clark predicted that someone would drop a tray while serving appetizers. Luckily, every celebrity waiter managed to get the job done without any “slip-ups.”

Last year’s inaugural event was a smashing success. So this year, Kerrigan says they simply wanted to build on what was established in 2013. “This year we tried to increase the numbers — that was really our goal,” said Kerrigan. “Last year was a great success — we raised over $100,000. So we’re hoping for even more this year.”

Ryan Kerrigan’s Blitz for the Better Foundation pledges to provide opportunities, support and resources to children and families in need in the Greater Washington D.C. area. Their primary focus is to provide support to seriously ill, special needs and physically challenged in the area.

“I’m here to help out one of my teammates,” said RB Alfred Morris. “Any opportunity I have to give back, especially for such a good cause, as Ryan [Kerrigan] has for ‘Blitz For The Better’ is definitely worth coming all the way out here to Arlington — fighting traffic in the middle of the day (he joked) — to come out here and support. Like I said, all these proceeds go to such a great cause with his foundation.”

The Celebrity Waiter night is one of several initiatives the foundation uses to help fund their mission. Money raised from the event will go toward the installation of Kerrigan’s first Kerrigan’s Korner (an electronic entertainment hub) at Children’s National Health System — in honor of Blitz for the Better Board Member, the late Wayne Curry.

“[Kerrigan's Korner] is basically for extended stay patients at Children’s National Hospital,” Kerrigan explained. “There will be a different locker for each patient with different stimulus things like an iPad, a gameboy, an Xbox — things like that can make their stay in the hospital a little more pleasant.”

For more information on the Blitz for the Better Foundation or Kerrigan’s Korner, please visit www.RyanKerrigan.org.